Creating bespoke wedding stationery and other handcrafted loveliness

Category: Illustration

“Finding a mate in the giant world is challenging, and it’s somewhat hazardous when you can get run over by a millipede.”
Sir David Attenborough.

Hello you lovely lot.

I’ve been excited to share this commission for a long time now and with these beauties out in the world I’m delighted to introduce to you, Abi & Rob’s wedding invitations.

I met the brilliant Abi & Rob way back when Frog & Pencil was basically a tadpole. They came to A Most Curious Wedding Fair in 2016, spotted my stall and a few days later got in touch. They had seen my Little Bespoke Book Wedding Invitation and thought it was so original and wanted something just like it. I clicked straight away with these guys as they completely understood my work and its quirky nature. They are also getting married where we said ‘I do’, at the beautiful Chaucer Barn, so we had a lot to chat about.

When it came to choosing their bespoke illustration they decided against a portrait and wanted weird and wonderful characters (yaaaay!) and settled on Chameleons. They had been watching a Sir David Attenborough documentary on Madagascar and found a kinship with these adorable Pygmy Chameleons, it was perfect. They even used Sir David’s commentary from the clip as their quote for the Little Bespoke Book and it’s actually a rather sweet analogy for finding love. They sent me the YouTube snippet and work began.

The Chameleons were a joy to paint and I wanted to capture the male stood upon the females back like the clip explains. I’m not going to lie though…I ended up with a bunch of compositions where it looked like they were humping! You really don’t want to send that to your guests!

It has been SO hard keeping this illustration under wraps. I finished it in April 2016 and it’s probably my favourite painting to date. However, Abi & Rob aren’t tying the knot until this September, so obviously the invites had to wait a little while.

In the meantime…

Abi & Rob asked for some Save our Dates which I was more than happy to create for them. They wanted to keep these quite simple featuring their names inside a garland, the date and the venue. However, they had a cracking idea for the reverse, something to tease their guests and a little ‘nod’ to the invitations. I loved it! The tails are uncomplicated, but the colours are just luscious. I would have liked to be a fly on their friends and families walls to witness the reactions!

As the new year drew closer I was champing at the bit to resume work on their Little Bespoke Book. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s essentially a 12 page wedding invitation made into a book. Couples can fill it full of details their guests are going to need to know about the big day and it’s all in one place; there’s also an opportunity to add in personal information too. What does it include I hear you holla, well, let me tell you:

These are details Abi & Rob chose for each page but you can include anything you like, it doesn’t have to follow this format.

When the guys sent me their word doc after Christmas, I started work on the pages, embellishing each one with elements from their main illustration as finishing touches. I was chuffed they wanted to include a Wedding Map with directions too, I love creating these and it was a good excuse to look through lots of gorgeous images of Chaucer Barn to paint from, it certainly brought back many happy memories.

When I picked the proof up from my printer I let out an audible squeak! Seeing one of my pieces come to fruition after being in my mind for almost a year was amazing. I’m particularly proud of this wedding invitation. I met with Abi, Rob & Jones for a drink to hand deliver their package and felt even prouder when I saw their faces. I’m happy to say they love them. It’s that very moment which warms my heart and reinforces why I made the leap to being self-employed, it truly is worth it.

Now these little books have happy homes, I’ll stop yapping so you can see the invites in all their glory. Enjoy.

There’s still more to come for the lovely Abi & Rob as they’ll be commissioning me to create some ‘on the day’ stationery too, so watch this space to see how the collection grows come September.

If you’re looking for an original wedding invitation that holds everything you need to share with your guests alongside giving them that ‘wow’ feeling (it also makes an awesome keepsake!) then a Little Bespoke Book Wedding Invitation might be what you’re looking for. Drop me an e-mail at hello@frogandpencil.com for all enquiries, I’d love to chat to you and hear about your wedding day.

This commission has been under wraps since March but I’m so excited to finally share the illustration and story with you all…it was really quite a specific and a rather bonkers request. So settle down and get comfy while I tell you a little anecdote about the friendship of The Three Mental Swans.

Almost ten years ago C, M & T met each other on their travels in New Zealand and they instantly made a connection. A few weeks of crazy adventures ensued around the Islands and they knew then that they were friends for life. They affectionately named themselves the Mental Swans and each swan has her inner animal. C is the Nemo Swan, M is the Penguin Swan and T is the White Tiger Swan. Even though C, M & T all live in different countries and their lives have taken new directions, the sisterly bond between them has held fast and strong all these years.

C commissioned me to create an illustration to reflect this wonderful relationship for M’s 30th birthday and I was delighted to be asked. Along with the distinct swans, she wanted to include a few personal Maori touches into the garland. The main one being the butterfly, a design the girls created based around the friendship symbol Pikorua, which they now all proudly share as a tattoo.

This was such a fun design to work on and the moment I began to add colour it all came to life! I’m so happy with this illustration and I adore the heartwarming meaning it represents. I’m also delighted to report that M loves it too…happy birthday M, I hope it was a blinder!

Here it is in all its beautifully bonkers glory; enjoy!

Mental Swans for life!

Are you looking for a unique gift? Resonate a personal story or a special relationship with a Frog & Pencil illustration; it will certainly be one to treasure! Get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.

Things have been ticking along nicely over the past few weeks for Frog & Pencil and I’ve been working on a commission that I simply can’t share with you just yet…but soon it will be revealed!

Alongside that little nugget, I’ve been involved in my first collaboration project which I’m delighted to share with you all today.

My awesome Niece Niki is currently in her second year at NUA studying photography. This term they were asked to collaborate with a fellow photography student and one other person; so naturally I was rather chuffed when Niki and Sam asked me to hop on board. I don’t know if it was a part of their brief to work with someone outside of the University but hats off to them as this is valuable and relevant experience to working with other designers throughout the creative industry. Perhaps this should be considered for future briefs.

By creating a wedding themed shoot, Niki and Sam felt that this idea would compliment both their photography styles and this is also where my designs came into play. The original plan sounded beautiful being a boho woodland photo shoot with lots of warm festoon lighting, furniture, fabrics and my artwork hanging from branches. So gorgeous! Sadly, they were let down at the last minute and were unable to make it to Thetford Forest. I do feel for Niki & Sam as they had been planning this for months but these things happen in life and will certainly happen in the working world. Credit to the gals for thinking on their feet and finding a simpler and lovely solution in the studio.

I wasn’t able to make it to the shoot, though I would have loved to have popped my head in to see the set up. Thanks to Sam, she created a fab behind the scenes video which is ace and you can watch it in all it’s glory here…

I spent a fun morning with Niki, coffee & pastries editing her photographs and it was a great experience for me to see and be a part of the final process. Overall I think the images look great. I really like Sam’s compositions of the frames and flowers hanging from the bamboo at different heights. I particularly love Niki’s warm tonal quality she’s captured, I think it naturally compliments my work and the colours within my illustrations.

I’ll certainly be adding some of these photographs to my website gallery but in the meantime you can enjoy a select few here…

Prepping prints!

Ready for their close up!

Credit N.J Photography

Credit N.J Photography

Credit Samantha Cameron Photography

Credit N.J Photography

Credit Samantha Cameron Photography

Credit N.J Photography

Editing images with N.J Photography…with coffee & pastries of course!

I loved being a third collaborator on this project and I hope my designs gave them both enough to work with and they managed to snap what they needed.

I’d certainly recommend you give these guys a look and follow, so here’s my Croak Out to Niki & Sam…

I have a rather adorable commission to share with you all today and it also happens to be quite a personal one too. Our gorgeous friend’s, the Kula’s, have two beautiful girls, Isabel and Abigail and I was delighted to create their Christening Invitation. Even though Claire and Pawel are close friends, I treated the whole process like I would with a client…so it was good practice for me.

I had a Skype chat with Claire about what they were looking for and it was decided that the design should include the girl’s portraits within a floral garland. They wanted to include yellow roses and overall, for it to be colourful, bright and joyous. Isabel also likes butterflies and I wanted to add them to the design for an extra personal touch.

I LOVED illustrating the girls and I had so much fun creating the whole invitation. After a few wording tweaks it was completed in a couple days and I’m delighted with the result, as are the fabulous Kula’s!

Claire has also mentioned that she’s received some lovely feedback from friends and family about the invitations which just makes my heart soar. I’m pretty proud of this commission and delighted to have a happy customer. Lewie and I are also honoured to be Isabel’s God Parents, so I had to do a good job really…didn’t want that title revoked!

Another great example that I don’t just focus on weddings, so if you have a celebration coming up and are looking for personal and bespoke stationery, get in touch and say hello.

I’m off to get ready for A Most Curious Wedding Fair...a last minute cancellation means that Frog & Pencil is now exhibiting this Sunday, eeek! More on that later.

It has been BUSY up here at Frog & Pencil HQ, hence the lack of posts of late but in the coming weeks I have quite a few exciting things to write about, so you should see a rise in my blogging.

A few days after we launched the Frog & Pencil website a lovely little gem of an e-mail pinged its way into my inbox. My first, official web enquiry for a commission. Both Lewie and I were ecstatic…I was hopping around the lounge with excitement because a real live human being wanted me to make something for them and Lew was jumping around, proud that the web contact form works and was successful! Needless to say, we were rather happy.

The very wonderful S is pregnant with her first child and wanted to announce their joyous news with a card to send to family and friends. She had seen my work on Facebook and liked my style, so after checking out my website she got in touch. S was looking for an illustration that had a pink mummy hippo, a grey daddy hippo and a baby hippo popping out behind them, with the line ‘We would like to introduce you to someone’ alongside them. And on the back she envisioned ‘Delivery expected August 2016’. I instantly thought this sounded ADORABLE and such a sweet idea; a nice alternative to sharing the news on social media. This commission was just my cup of tea and I was delighted to create a card for S and her Husband.

We chatted a while about any additional embellishment such as a garland, however, it was decided to keep the design pretty simple with a little decoration to compliment the hippos.

I absolutely loved working on this commission, it was a really fun project and it also helped me to figure out what my packaging style would become too. It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted all the goodies to S and her Husband, which thankfully arrived safe and sound. Along with the final cards, I included envelopes, a thank you card, my business card and the original painting which I believe will be perfect hung up in the nursery. I’m proud to say that they’re thrilled with their hippo card and I was very chuffed to receive some brilliant feedback.

Here you have it folks, Frog & Pencil’s first commission…enjoy the hippo gallery!

Walking my first parcel to the Post Office, I was overcome with pride and I can’t wait to create more designs to make future clients smile.

As you can see, I don’t just illustrate loveliness for weddings; I’ve actually just finished a Christening Invitation (which will be posted on here next week). If you, like S, enjoy what I do and have a special announcement or want to mark a particular occasion, get in touch, I’d love to chat to you! E-mail me here… hello@frogandpencil.com

Wishing S and her Husband all the best for the future with their mini hippo of joy. A massive thank you for asking me to make your card and also for supporting an independent small business.

I hope you’re all having a marvellous Wednesday and not getting too soggy, I’m off to get ready for my first Wedding Fair…more on that later!

I hope that you all had a fantastic new years and are finding a way to combat the January blues.

A super quick post for you lovely bunch today. In the run up to Christmas I made a few gifts for my friends. I shared a handful of sneak peeks on my Instagram and Twitter feeds, but now, since they’ve all been unwrapped, I can finally reveal the illustrations; hurrah!

So here you have it, three custom portraits. Apologies about the lighting in the photographs…I’m working towards improving this. Enjoy!

Jayne & Dan

The Giles Family

The Kula Family

I relished creating these images and I’m happy to report that all the recipients loved their gift!

If you’re interested in commissioning a bespoke portrait for yourself or as a present to a loved one, please do get in touch via: hello@frogandpencil.com

Whilst I’m creating new work, I want to give you an idea of what it is I’ll be making. So, I have decided to write a couple of posts on the stationery and other lovely detailed bits and bobs I created for our wedding earlier this year.

First up, wedding stationery!

Now, to me, the wedding stationery was quite important, as I feel that it gives your guests a taste of what the big day is going to look and feel like. We wanted it to be personal, represent who we are and to also be whimsical; so I was super excited to be creating these. The stationery could simply be the invite itself, but I liked the idea of a ‘stationery suite’. This includes the Save Our Date, The Invitation and a Thank You card. Ours also branched out into the Table Plan and Table & Name cards.

Here’s a little flavour of what I created for our happy day.

Stationery ‘Suite’

Save Our Date

The Frog & Bear Invitation

Invitation Back Page

Hvala (Thank You) Card

Table Plan

Table Name

Name Card

There you have it! I LOVED making all of these elements and I’m really proud of how they all turned out; especially the invitation. It was a labour of love…a little book, jam-packed with all the information our guests needed to know, and more! The ‘book’ style invite is the direction I’d like Frog & Pencil to take, and I’m planning a separate post on all the goodies the different pages contained; so please do hop on over again soon.